Research Associate - Enhancing the Lifetime of Solid Oxide Electrolysers Through Interface Engineering

Location: South Kensington campus

Contract: Full Time, Fixed term contract until 08 March 2026

Job summary:

This post supports the Ceres/Royal Academy of Engineering Research Chair awarded to Professor Skinner to investigate solid state electrochemical devices and to develop materials to be used to achieve net zero carbon emissions. Solid oxide electrolysers (SOECs) are an emerging technology solution to address the urgent need to produce green hydrogen. As we move towards GW hydrogen production extended operation time for electrolyser stacks of in excess of 60,000 hours are required, with little or no performance degradation. The performance of these SOE cells is inextricably linked with the stability of the functional electrochemical interfaces. Understanding the evolution of the structure and chemistry at the electrode/electrolyte interfaces, gas/solid interfaces and processes occurring at internal interfaces, e.g. grain boundaries, will provide critical insight into device evolution, allowing new materials strategies to be developed. Through the use of advanced characterization tools including electron microscopy, atom probe tomography and ion beam techniques, coupled with impedance spectroscopy, mechanistic information on interface evolution, particularly at the fuel electrode, will be obtained providing insights that will underpin the development next generation cells.

Duties and responsibilities

• Perform original research under the direction of the relevant staff members consistent with the Ceres/RAEng Research Chair objectives.
• Develop research objectives and proposals, contribute to setting the direction of the research project.

Essential requirements

• Expertise in transmission electron microscopy including imaging and analytical techniques as applied to ceramics
• Expertise in ion beam analysis of ceramic oxides
• Expertise in electrochemical characterisation of solid oxide cells.

Candidates who have not yet officially been awarded their PhD will be appointed initially at Research Assistant (with a salary range of £41,694 to £44,888.

For further information about the role, please contact Professor Stephen Skinner (S.Skinner@imperial.ac.uk).

Any queries regarding the application process should be directed to: Darakshan Khan (d.khan@imperial.ac.uk).

HR Division

For technical issues, please contact: support.jobs@imperial.ac.uk

The College is a proud signatory to the San-Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), which means that in hiring and promotion decisions, we evaluate applicants on the quality of their work, not the journal impact factor where it is published. For more information, see https://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-evaluation/

The College believes that the use of animals in research is vital to improve human and animal health and welfare. Animals may only be used in research programmes where their use is shown to be necessary for developing new treatments and making medical advances. Imperial is committed to ensuring that, in cases where this research is deemed essential, all animals in the College’s care are treated with full respect, and that all staff involved with this work show due consideration at every level.

http://www.imperial.ac.uk/research-and-innovation/about-imperial-research/research-integrity/animal-research/

We are committed to equality of opportunity, to eliminating discrimination and to creating an inclusive working environment for all. We therefore encourage candidates to apply irrespective of age, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion and belief, gender identity, sex, or sexual orientation. We are an Athena SWAN Silver Award winner, a Disability Confident Leader and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Closing date: 24 July 2024

Apply online via the above ‘Apply’ button.

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